Avocado Production in Asia and the Pacific - United Nations in ...

AVOCADO PRODUCTION IN SRI LANKA
Moses Dionysius *
1. INTRODUCTION
Avocado is one of the popular fruit crops grown and consumed in Sri Lanka. It is
also a commonly grown fruit in home gardens of the wet zone of the country. Due to its
excellent adaptability to the climatic conditions of the wet zone, particularly its tolerance to
rainfall during flowering, and with less demand for crop husbandry practices and few pest
and disease problems, the growers select avocado as a permanent crop in their home gardens.
The first introduction of avocado into Sri Lanka is not well documented, but some
evidence suggests that it could have been originally domesticated during the Dutch
occupation, over 200 years ago. However, the first recorded introduction was made on 12th
May 1927 during the British occupation of the island. From that time until 1940 several
varieties including Datton, Puebla, Winslowson, Gottfried, St. Anne and Pollock were
introduced from time to time. During the period of these introductions, the agricultural
policy of the government was directed only towards promoting plantation crops such as tea,
rubber and coconut and the staple rice, as a result of which the production development
programmes on fruits, including avocado, received much less attention. Limited research and
development, however, continued on many tropical and sub-tropical fruits and several
avocado varieties and their hybrids were identified for production in the mid-country wet
zone. Varieties of the West Indian and Guatemalan race were recommended for the midcountry
and varieties of the Mexican race were popularized in the upper Uva region of Sri
Lanka at elevations above 1,200 metres. Many natural hybrids occurred as a result of escapes
from cultivation in government nurseries and today a large population of non-descript
varieties thrive in village home gardens of the mid-country and up-country wet zones.
In 1986/87, another twenty varieties were introduced under the auspices of the
UNDP/FAO Horticulture Project. Currently, these varieties are being tested and grown
under different agro-climatic regions. At present, about 95 per cent of the trees are of
seedling origin, resulting from open pollination of the previously introduced varieties.
Avocados are directly consumed as fresh fruits and are also processed into fruit salad and
fruit drinks. There is an ongoing research programme in processing and utilization of
avocado at the Food Research Unit of the Department of Agriculture. In the 1980s, the
soybean development programme of the Department of Agriculture successfully developed
weaning foods (drum dried flakes) incorporating avocado, soybean and other tropical fruits.
* Experimental Officer, Horticulture Research and Development Institute, Kandy, Sri Lanka.
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